


foolish as they may seem

by rosewitchx



Series: "it's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." [4]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Trailer, Bisexual Peter Parker, Flash Forward, Flashbacks, Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, Light Angst, Multi, Polyamory, Screwing Time Up, Smooching, Teenage Dorks, Temporary Character Death, The power of friendship, Theft, Time Travel, but not really, remember when i said this morning i'd go to sleep earlier? me neither.... it's 4am, that trippy gotg grab my hand scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 04:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13896501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosewitchx/pseuds/rosewitchx
Summary: There are many possibilities, for the future's not set in stone, but Peter thinks he's chosen the best outcome available. This is how it goes: Thanos dies, crushed by the Gauntlet. Everyone lives. The Earth is safe. And he becomes one with Time.





	foolish as they may seem

**Author's Note:**

> this has mild, mild black panther spoils. not anything plot related. just my bab shuri. but just in case.......... u kno

"Peter!"

 

 

 

 

At first, he goes forward. There are many possibilities, for the future's not set in stone, but Peter thinks he's chosen the best outcome available. This is how it goes: Thanos dies, crushed by the Gauntlet. Everyone lives. The Earth is safe. And he becomes one with Time. 

 

 

 

 

 "Peter," Ned cries at him, "grab my hand!"

Peter doesn't understand. He's almost hit the ground, but he's free-falling and he's never left the Earth in the first place. He's swinging through Queens and through New York's skyscrapers and through alien rubble in some far away world, and then into the Washington Monument, just in time, and he sees Ned yelling those words as if he's the one about to fall.

He doesn't speak. He doesn't budge. He can't, how could he possibly? He's not even there anymore. That was months ago. Or will be. What day is this? What time is this? 

Slowly (or quickly - maybe even backwards) he looks at his other hand.

Oh.

He'd grabbed the green stone with it. Granted, there was a very metallic, very good, very torn apart suit of armor stolen from the Iron Man himself between it and the stone, but still.

Oh, he stole Mr. Stark's suit... 

Well, that's what he got for being a mad lunatic with a death wish.

He got to watch the mess Peter made.

 

 

Because trying to get killed by Thanos to steal the stones from him really was a sound plan.

It had Peter Parker written all over it, at least.

 

 

He sees May, cooking terrible food and then ordering takeout.

He sees Ben, bleeding on the sidewalk, and then before, helping him with homework.

He sees his mom and dad.

He sees-  

 

 

Ned.

"Peter," Ned says again, calmer this time. "Grab my hand."

But it's MJ's hand. Calloused from pencils and paper cuts, soft from that facial soap she uses when life's being good to her.

He doesn't hold her hand. He doesn't need to to know how it fits perfectly into his. Into Ned's.

 

 

He's sneaking into the pool this time. He follows Liz, and Flash, and everyone else. They have fun.

He's sneaking into the vault this time. He follows the armed men, the Vulture, and Karen. He arrives on time. He arrives too late.

And then he sees a time before his own. He sees the deaths of Maria and Edward. He sees Natasha's red numbers and Clint's other works. He sees the murder of Big Peter's mom. He feels the pain Bucky felt. He feels the cold inside the Valkyrie as Steve dives into the ice. He knows of the Asgardians' wars. 

Peter leaps into the pool without looking.

 

 

"Peter," MJ said, with the usual urgency in her voice (read: none). "Grab my hand, dumbass."

Shuri's hand reached towards him. Her lab in Wakanda was a mess still, freshly bombed. Suddenly they weren't there: they were at his school's chem lab at night, toying around with webshooter fluid and sneaking around Stark Tower and just hanging out in some park with everyone else or going to get some ice cream and watch  _Solo_ before any of them has a chance to regret it.

And Shuri is looking at him, extending her hand out to him.

He looks at his own hand. Somehow, he can see through the suit, to his flesh: it's like it's melting into thin air. Dissolving into stardust.

And he's okay with that. For a moment, at least.

And then Tony grabs him by the shoulder and he's pulled to the present. To the war, the one he already knows how will end.

Pain hits him instantly, and that's a lot for someone who's just spent an eternity in the void.

Thanos has vanished. A whirlwind of time itself envelops them; he looks at Tony and sees green in his eyes. He wonders if he looks like that too.

"Peter," he seems to say, though he cannot tell. Everything is so loud and overwhelming, the reality of what he's just seen driving him insane. 

And Tony looks into his eyes. Green against green. And Peter sees through them what Tony will never tell him.

And then Steve, knowing himself wounded, holds Peter's wrist.

And then Nat. And Gamora. Suddenly everyone's reaching towards him, and he sees it in front of him:

It's Ned, and MJ, stretching their hands towards him.

"Peter," they cry out, anguish and panic rooted deep within them.

And he lifts his hand and holds theirs.

 

 

Later, Peter wakes up.

Tony's asleep next to him, on the ship's floor; it's Groot who's driving the Milano. Mantis sits next to him and stares.

Did he imagine them? His heart aches at the prospect of harming Michelle, or Ned, or anyone close to him. Later, he'll talk to Shuri about this, in a moment of vulnerability not uncommon to his future; maybe Big Peter will ask him about it, maybe Clint, though most of the time it's Wanda who sneaks into his room at midnight and asks. Statistically, Bruce never returns every two out of five realities. Loki only dies if Bucky and Steve both die, and Bucky only dies about half of the times Steve does. Steve dies once every six times. Brunnhilde only ever returns at random intervals, and her first interaction is either with Thor or with Sam.

Tony has a fifty percent chance of waking up. 

There's a 0.02% chance that there won't be an Earth to come home to.

So that's neat.

_At least I'll get to be there_ , he thinks,  _and not as an unfeeling ghost_.

So he closes his eyes and lets himself dream.

 

 

Tony breathes. Everyone does. And he's lucky, and he knows it.

May holds him tight for what seems like an eternity (but not really). He smells like smoke, she's wearing her favorite perfume.

He's lucky. Even if breathing does not mean awake, he's lucky to even have a chance at helping them survive.

And he knows it.

 

 

(One night Stephen talks to him.

"You could have destroyed everything," he says. "It was very dangerous."

Peter hears this conversation as long as Strange survives, which is 87.6% of all possible outcomes.)

 

 

MJ's fingers run through his hair. Ned's lips are on his own.

The water from back then was freezing. It was insanity. The fire from the start of all time, the gas and the lack of air and then too much and then too little and then -  just enough. Freezing water, burning worlds, he's seen it all. How can he tell them? How can he explain something he doesn't fully understand himself?

But that's the thing: they look into his eyes and see brown, and see green, and they comprehend better than anyone ever will. Ever.

"Dumbass," MJ says. Ned agrees with her.

And after all the mess he'd made, Peter finally lets himself smile.

**Author's Note:**

> m tired.  
> songs i've listened to while writing this:  
> -paracetamol by declan mckenna  
> -audition from the la la land soundtrack  
> -for him. by troye sivan (because i'm a homosexual)  
> -death of a bachelor by panic! at the disco  
> the only one of those that vaguely makes sense is the audition one. sorry.  
> if there's any mistakes pls let me know...... sleep deprived gays aren't good at bein their own betas
> 
> as a side note. i really want solo (2018) to be a good movie but i FEAR.  
> i was in a very gay mood today. i indulged in a lot of michelle/shuri. i might write somethin abt them soon.........


End file.
